The Customer Magazine: An Old Format With a New Justification?

Why rethink the customer magazine?

Many people know customer magazines from the pharmacy or the energy supplier. In B2B, large manufacturers long had them, with glossy paper, an interview with the board and a trade fair calendar. With the newsletter they seemed superfluous: cheaper, faster, measurable. Meanwhile inboxes are full, many newsletters are deleted unread, and a printed magazine on the desk stands out again.

This analysis therefore answers the question: Does the customer magazine have a justification again today for a small B2B business, and if so, in what form? We first clarify the term and a model from media research that explains why people read a medium. Then we look at what studies show about reading on paper and the lingering effect of print, weigh two views and work through the numbers for a small magazine.

A customer magazine is not worth it because it is printed, but when it contains something the customer wants to keep.

What is a customer magazine, and how does it differ from a newsletter?

A customer magazine is a regularly published publication that a company issues for its customers, with editorial articles rather than pure advertising. It can appear in print or digitally, as a PDF or as a magazine on the website. This article focuses on the printed form, because it differs most clearly from the newsletter.

The article on the B2B newsletter describes the newsletter’s strengths with the 1-1-1 rule: per issue, one topic, one complete answer, one next step. The newsletter is fast, personal and designed for a reply. The customer magazine is slower; it appears rarely, often two to four times a year, and it is designed to be kept and passed on. It complements the newsletter; it does not replace it.

The thinking model: uses and gratifications

In the 1970s, media research turned a simple question around. Instead of asking what media do to people, Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler and Michael Gurevitch (1974) asked what people do with media. Their uses and gratifications approach assumes that readers actively choose a medium to fulfill certain needs. Typical needs are information, meaning knowledge for decisions; orientation, meaning making sense of what is happening in one’s own industry; exchange, meaning topics to talk about with colleagues; and entertainment, meaning a pleasant break.

For the customer magazine, the model is uncomfortable. It says: no customer reads a magazine because the business sends it. They read it when it fulfills one of these needs better than the other media on their desk. A magazine full of product news and company announcements fulfills none. A magazine with an analysis of new regulations, a case from a neighboring business and a checklist to keep fulfills three.

What studies show about print

Clinton (2019) analyzed in a meta-analysis how well people understand on paper and on screen. Only experiments with random assignment published between 2008 and 2018 were included, with skilled readers in their native language and the same texts in both conditions. Across 33 studies with 2,799 participants, comprehension on screen was slightly worse than on paper. The difference concerned mainly expository texts; for narrative texts there was none. Reading time did not differ, and readers judged their own comprehension more accurately on paper.

The effect is small, and the studies come from laboratories and educational settings, not from marketing. For the customer magazine it is nonetheless instructive, because it mainly contains expository texts: analyses, instructions, case descriptions. On paper they are understood slightly better with the same reading time.

The second insight concerns the lingering effect. The adstock model, which the article on B2B direct mail describes, sees advertising as a stock that is replenished with every contact and then slowly depletes. Zantedeschi, Feit and Bradlow (2017) measured decay rates in field experiments at a retailer: catalogs had a considerably longer effect on purchasing behavior than emails. Valenti, Srinivasan and Yildirim (2024) found that mail worked mainly on people who did not yet know the provider, email more on existing customers. Both studies concern consumers.

New justification or expensive nostalgia? Two views

The first view sees a new justification. Where digital channels overflow, print stands out. It is understood slightly better, it has a longer effect, and it is passed on within the customer’s business, from the managing director to the workshop manager, from purchasing to engineering. In B2B, where several people decide, this passing on is valuable. And the market for mail has not disappeared: in Germany, spending on advertising mail remained stable in 2025 at 5.8 billion euros, while the overall advertising market grew to 45.3 billion euros (Deutsche Post, Dialogmarketing-Monitor 2026).

The second view sees expensive nostalgia. A magazine costs editorial work, design, printing and postage, and its effect is hard to measure. The findings on lingering effects come from consumer retail, and Valenti and colleagues themselves cite a B2B study that found no effect of mail advertising on sales. In addition, in larger businesses the mailroom decides what arrives. Anyone who puts the money into a good newsletter and expert articles reaches the same customers more cheaply.

I consider both views justified and draw a narrow line: the customer magazine pays off as a small loyalty format for existing customers, not as an advertising tool for new ones. It fits when customer relationships last long, services need explaining, several people in the customer’s business are involved and the business has enough to say to fill four good issues a year. If any of these conditions is missing, the newsletter is the better choice.

What does a small customer magazine cost?

A customer magazine does not have to be a glossy publication. An eight-page magazine, four times a year to 300 recipients, is a realistic frame for a small business. The following worked example shows the cost of one issue.

Around 7.60 euros per recipient and issue is a lot compared with a newsletter and little compared with the value of an existing customer. Whether it pays off depends on customer value, as the article on calculating customer value describes. Anyone who earns an average contribution margin of 15,000 euros a year from each of their 300 customers only needs the magazine to prevent a little churn or trigger a few additional orders to carry just over 9,000 euros. This can only be proven, however, through feedback, voucher codes or dedicated landing pages for each issue.

How an issue is structured

The uses and gratifications approach yields a structure that serves each need once. I call it the four-needs magazine. It fits on eight pages.

1. Page 1: A cover topic with a benefit

   A question many customers have right now, with a clear promise: “What the new inspection requirement means for your equipment.”

2. Pages 2 to 4: Analysis

   The cover topic in detail, with figures and sources. Information and orientation at once.

3. Pages 5 and 6: A case from a customer business

   With approval, names and photos, following the structure of a case study. Material for exchange among colleagues.

4. Page 7: Something to keep

   A checklist, a maintenance calendar or an overview that can be pinned to the wall.

5. Page 8: People and next step

   A look inside the business, contacts with direct lines and a single next step.

For topics, what the article on B2B content marketing describes applies: they come from sales. Every question customers ask repeatedly is an article. And for sending to existing customers by mail: advertising by letter is legally simpler in B2B than by email in Germany, but a recipient’s objection must be respected. The article on data protection in sales gives an overview. This is not legal advice.

What can be generalized

The customer magazine shows that a format does not become outdated but loses or regains its job. What has changed is not the paper but the environment: where everyone competes for attention in the same digital channels, the slow can stand out. But this only holds if the content serves the reader. A magazine that praises the business ends up in the wastebasket today just as it did before. A magazine that gives customers something they want to keep stays on the desk, is passed on and has a lingering effect.

The limits lie in the evidence. The studies on reading come from educational settings, those on lingering effects from consumer retail, and for B2B there is even a finding of no effect. The costs in the worked example are freely chosen. The model is robust: what is read is what provides a benefit, and print stays in view longer.

Conclusion and a first step

The opening question was
the customer magazine has a justification again today for a small B2B business, and in what form. It has one, but a narrow one: as a small printed magazine for existing customers with long relationships, services that need explaining and several people involved in the customer’s business. There, slightly better comprehension of expository texts on paper, the longer lingering effect and passing it on within the customer’s business speak in its favor. As an advertising tool for new customers and as a replacement for the newsletter, it is not suitable. What decides is content: a magazine pays off when it offers information, orientation, exchange or entertainment and does not celebrate the business itself.

• Check whether the four conditions are met: long relationships, services that need explaining, several people involved, enough topics.
• Collect ten customer questions from sales and check whether they fill four issues.
• Work out the cost of one issue with your own figures and compare it with customer value.
• Send a trial eight-page issue to your 50 most important customers and ask for feedback.
• Use every article additionally as an expert article and in the newsletter.